School Rumble
School Rumble (スクールランブル''Sukūru Ranburu''?) is a Japanese Shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. Shōnen Magazine Special published a sequel, School Rumble Z, monthly from August 20, 2008 to May 20, 2009. A romance comedy centering on relationships between Japanese high school students, School Rumble focuses on a love triangle involving the series' two protagonists, Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto, and one of their classmates, Oji Karasuma. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect. School Rumble's popularity has resulted in its adaption into multiple forms of media. TV Tokyo broadcast a 26-episode anime program between October 2004 and April 2005. In December 2005, a two-part original video animation (OVA) entitled School Rumble: Extra Class was released. A second season,School Rumble: 2nd Semester, aired between April and September 2006. Finally, two more episodes, collectively entitled School Rumble: Third Semester, were bundled with the Japanese manga volumes 21 and 22. Three video games have been produced—two for the PlayStation 2 in July 2005 and July 2006, and one for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. Two light novels written by Hiroko Tokita and illustrated by Kobayashi were published in April 2004 and December 2007; four official guidebooks illustrated by Kobayashi and written by his editors have also been released. Del Rey Manga publishes the English translation of School Rumble. In the translation, Del Rey Manga maintained the traditional Japanese name order[n 1]to preserve puns based on the characters' names. Funimation Entertainment published the first and second anime seasons and the Extra Class OVAs in English. School Rumble has been translated into additional languages, although the final two episodes, the video games, and guidebooks have yet to be released outside Japan. The manga was well received by Japanese-language readers; several volumes have appeared in the top manga sales charts. The North American English translations were less popular, but still ranked several times in the top 100 as well as ranking 145th for overall manga series sales in 2008. Critics of the English-language translation have been positive overall, praising Kobayashi for his art style and overall use of humor. However, the manga has received some criticism, mostly centered around some of the jokes and repetitive plot. The anime adaptation also sold well in Japan and was praised by Kobayashi and—for the English-language translation—critics. The decision by Media Factory to aggressively pursue its intellectual property rights for School Rumble''is believed by proponents of fansubs to have had a negative impact on the franchise's release and sales in the North American market. ''School Rumble is a romantic comedy revolving around the daily lives of the students of Class 2-C at the fictional Yagami High School, as well as their friends and families. The main female protagonist is Tenma Tsukamoto, an unremarkable second-year high school student[1] who secretly admires her eccentric, enigmatic, nice-guy classmate, Oji Karasuma.[2] Tenma struggles to confess her feelings to Oji. He remains oblivious to her interest, instead seeking fulfillment by indulging in curry. The main male protagonist, delinquent Kenji Harima, similarly yearns for Tenma, attending school solely to be near her.[3] Like Tenma, Harima has difficulty declaring his love, and whenever he summons the courage to do so, circumstances conspire against him.[4] Harima complicates the love triangle through constant bumbling, and misunderstandings among the students aggravate the situation. Harima becomes involved with Tenma's close friend, Eri Sawachika, after the pair are thrown together in mutually embarrassing situations. Later in the series, he develops a friendship with Tenma's younger sister, Yakumo Tsukamoto, who becomes Harima's assistant on a manga he writes. The plots of Harima's stories portray a Harima-like hero fighting to save a Tenma-like damsel in various historical or fantastical situations, usually in battle against an obvious facsimile of Karasuma. After the hero saves the heroine, she always falls in love with him. Yakumo's relationship with Harima causes problems with Class 2-C's student representative, Haruki Hanai, who has a crush on Yakumo, with the sisters' shared surname causing Harima and Hanai to misinterpret the object of each others' respective infatuations.[n 2] Although Harima manages to engineer romantic encounters with Tenma, her relationship with Karasuma nevertheless progresses, and Harima's bonds with Eri and Yakumo grow stronger. Eventually Tenma musters the courage to confess her love, but shortly after Karasuma loses his memory. His amnesia gives a purpose to Tenma's life; she concentrates on her studies to become a doctor and help Karasuma. Although School Rumble focuses on Harima and Tenma, the series explores a number of supporting characters. These include Tenma's friends Mikoto Suo, who runs a kenpō dojo where her childhood friend, Hanai, trains, and Akira Takano, a mysterious and uncannily perceptive girl. As the story progresses, more major characters are introduced into the relationship web. The series ends with Class 2-C's graduation ceremony. At this point most of the plot-lines are settled, but there is no clear resolution for the main protagonists. Karasuma still suffers from memory loss, and although Harima attends the ceremony with Eri, the status of his relationship with Yakumo is uncertain.[5]